From manufacture through installation and use and even after it s life cycle is over vinyl has the potential to cause harm to both the broad and your environment in many ways.
Why are vinyl tiles bad for the enviroment.
While vinyl flooring continues to grow in popularity there are several serious environmental concerns about this resilient surface material.
However the act of recycling vinyl to be re used in flooring uses a lot of energy and also means you are running the risks of introducing contaminants into your flooring.
Carbon hydrogen and chlorine.
Toxic tris flame retardants are added to pvc products such as vinyl flooring and are released as off gassing occurs from the vinyl.
Most often used in construction pvc is a plastic composed of three elements.
The phthalates added to make soft and pliable vinyl products such as shower curtains and children s lunch bags easily migrate or off gas making them easy to inhale or ingest.
Ceramic tiles are another good choice.
Ceramic floor tiles are waterproof and not very porous making them easy to clean and an unlikely surface for the growth of mold mildew and other allergens.
Luxury vinyl flooring lvf is a relatively new form of vinyl flooring designed with a layer of flexible vinyl bonded to an additional backing layer that gives it a semi rigid nature.
It also has the same vinyl layer print layer and wear layer found in standard vinyl sheet or vinyl floor tile.
As well as potentially containing harmful contaminants recycled vinyl flooring breaks down sooner than 100 virgin vinyl and therefore needs replacing sooner.
Flooring this organization checks the health environmental and social impacts of all of the products used for all of these flooring types including materials sealants glue etc.
The off gassing of vinyl flooring chemicals will be a painstakingly slow process that can progress for some time after the installation the duration of time will depend on a variety of factors such as the number of chemicals released into the air the ventilation in the space and the size of the environment that is impacted by the off gassing.